Via con Helmet!

Hi!

Well. That was a fine week if I do say so myself. Solved the little work problem. Took a mid-week day off to test drive my brand-spanking new $600+ helmet that's finally arrived from Japan http://www.araiamericas.com/helmet_details.asp?model=VECTOR(oooooooh it's soooooo COOOOL!). Got to surf the 'net for jobs -at work. And generally came to accept the fact that I have thrown myself off another job cliff yet again.

So the week started out with a little (lie, a lot) of dread about going to work, but managed to get to the big boss to hand in my notice first thing Monday morning. Such a shame, but there it is. So that was done, now to get through the next 2 weeks with the little devil-in-heels. Well. What should happen come that same Monday afternoon? Awwww, the poor thing-in-heels got sent home on two-weeks' "stress leave". Awwwwww. And then, like magic, my work-load plummeted along with my stress levels! And bonus, the big boss was out of the office most of the week at meetings!!!!!!! So to add to my good mood, not only could I actually hear the music coming out of my little computer for once, I took one of my two remaining sick days to ride around in my groovy, new, and grossly expensive helmet. And hey, I discovered a new neighborhood - Tenneriffe. Niiiiiice. Like a cleaned-up and totally yuppified Brooklyn. It was niiiiice. I wanna live there too! Must get job, then can move.

And then the weekend was rather quiet. In a good way. Saturday I spent proof-reading and lightly editing my Grandad's autobiography. What an interesting life. I now chalk up to hereditary my inability to stay in one place. It started with my Grandad (and Grandma, even if it was more or less against her will), then to my parents (for leaving Indiana and driving one-way across the country to San Diego when I was all of 8 weeks old), and today, well, I'm only doing what's in our bloodline. As much as I complain about, well, lots, about setting up shop in a new place, be it in the US or outside of, I love it. I love seeing new places and settling in like a local. No matter how tough it can be at times. It's great. It's liberating. It's free (well, spiritually. The credit cards say otherwise). Sometimes I feel like a spy, only without the danger or wild glamor. Or some guy named James.

And today was spent cleaning the house like a crazy person. I have no idea what came over me. And it was hot and really gross out today (nothing a rootbeer float couldn't fix). I even did the windows, tho only had enough paper-towels for the inside. AND, I moved the furniture around the living-room. Kona's not so sure, and I'm not either..... But I think I like it. Just because the builders only put one power point in the entire living-room, next to the only internal antenna, does not mean the TV has to live in that same spot for all of eternity. So what if now I have to drape the antenna cable over stuff just to make out the picture, I have a new view from the couch! And the neighbors can't watch me sitting there watching TV. Excellent!

And that was it. It rained by the end of the day, that was nice. Means it was humid for a reason. Cooled everything off. Bit of a breeze too. Nice.

And that's that! So yeah, here's to my last week of work! Eeeeek! Ahhhh well, it was for the best. Onwards and upwards!!!!!!!!!!!!! Via con dios! as my Grandad liked to say!

BYE!
J!

Weak of Challenges

Hi!

Well. What a week that turned out to be. I knew it was going to be a "challenge" and boy was it. Put it this way, by Wednesday I was ready to hand in my 2-week notice. As it is, I didn't, but looks like I will be tomorrow first thing. And no, again, flying by the seat of my pants, I don't have another job to go to. Am putting my fate in the hands of the temp agencies. We'll see what happens. I've been down this road so many times I should set up rest stops and diners! So yeah. Tomorrow, two-week notice, then it'll be to get through the next 2 weeks. Ugh. Not looking forward to that at all. But who knows, maybe she'll be in a good mood because she's succeeded in driving yet another good person out of her bizarre little realm. Everyone else who's had my job (and there have been maaaaany over the last year or two) have left because of her, what's one more? Another bummer will be having to hire the new me, going through that process AGAIN, for the 3rd time in as many weeks. I say, the fun just doesn't stop with this job! Sheesh!

Otherwise, well, sadly, that's all I've been able to worry about. Pretty sad when work sneaks into the house and hangs around on the weekends. Two more weeks.......

So what else..... Was a quiet week and kinda quiet weekend. Natasha invited me to meet her and some friends down at the pub last night for St. Patrick's day drinking. I just went for a couple and then came home. Drunk people are funny only for so long. But it was a fun little night. The place wasn't nearly as packed as I expected it to be, but there were enough people to keep it interesting. And every now and then there was a little group of pipers and drummers (kilts and all) who would wander through, play a couple songs and wander back out. I guess that's what they do is hit a few pubs all night. Was neat. Nice touch. One guy, must've been the little band's manager, kept coming around all of the tables pushing cd's. A guy at our table got so tired of him that he bought a cd to make sure he went away and wouldn't come back. It worked! But last I saw before I left was the cd sitting all by itself on the empty table, no owner in sight. Ahhh well. The pub'll be pleased!

And really, that was about it. Weather was nice and sunny, but thankfully not as blisteringly hot and humid as last weekend. Still hot though. But, 3 weeks into autumn, it's bound to cool off at some point! The sky is getting darker earlier and taking longer to come up in the morning, so cooler air can't be far behind! And once this hot and gross business goes away, it'll be absolutely beautiful for the next 9 months or so. Yeeeaaaa! So c'mon down!

So yeah, I hope you're all well up there! Keep your eyes peeled for flight specials!

BYE!
J!

P.S. Hey, am sorry for ranting on and on about work. I know it's a bummer and boring to hear. Just bear with me over the next couple of weeks and things are certain to improve!

Hot Cross Bunnies!

Hi!

Well. That's another weekend gone. Shame. Was good.

So, yeah, the week was ok and then it rapidly descended into crap. I think I had one or two days with no headache. It turned out that after all of last week's hard work trying to sort out recruitment paperwork for the only gal we interviewed to take the place of a gal who's going away to have a baby, well, because it's the government and things move slower than snail's pace, by the time I called the gal's agency to tell her the job had her name all over it (hell, the gal had the job before she even came in for the interview), wouldn't you know it, because it took so long, she got another job. Hmm. So what does that mean for our fair hero? That's right, I get to go through the whole painful process again. Once wasn't enough fun, let's do it again! I about bust into tears when they told me. Good thing it happened Friday afternoon. So it looks like "hell" will be this week's theme. Oh. I feel my headache coming back.

But on another sort of connected note, talking with the 4 big temp agencies (trying to get more bodies to interview, again), they told me their folks are getting more job offers than they can shake a stick at. Which put the wheels of change spinning in my little head about just walking in tomorrow and handing in my 2 week notice. But, I've bought into that "we have sooooooooo many jobs" line of bull from those agencies where I've been 3 weeks out of work, no job in sight. Soooooooooo, tempting as it is, I'll suffer where I'm at. For now. We'll see how much fun the week is and then decide if Burger King (or, Hungry Jack's as it's known here) will be my next career move.

Other than that, the best way to kick off the weekend was that I met the gals (that I used to work with at my former gig with the scrubby little students) for dinner Friday night. Ahhhh, so good to talk to normal, friendly, cheery people in my same boat. We had an excellent laugh and catch-up session over a lovely dinner. Went by too fast though! Will need to plan for the next one I think. It's a good way for us to swap gossip, have a laugh over said gossip, and de-stress. A very good night.

Then first thing Saturday I took myself to Chinatown to stock up on A&W, when lo! I get there around 8.45am, and the shop is shut up tight! What?! I thought it'd be up and running full steam ahead at first light! They must be working to local time. So to kill time until they opened I had a wander through the little markets that are right nearby. Well. I've never been impressed with Fortitude Valley at the best of times and the markets do nothing to improve things. They're weird little markets in that they sell, well, crap. Iron-on badges, Grandma's old jewellery, scarves from the 80's (probably Grandma's), Grateful Dead posters, pirate flags (not that there's anything wrong with that, when I was 13), faded hard-cover books, also from the 80's, and so on. But look in any travel guide about Brisbane and they mention how great the Fortitude Valley markets are. I guess you have to wear patchouli to see the greatness of it (shudder).

And then today, I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and rarin' to get out and go for an adventure walk like I used to when I first arrived. Where I'd just walk and walk and walk and see new neighborhoods and figure out where things are. Well. Did I pick the hottest, most humid day of the summer or what (even though we're almost 2 weeks into autumn). And I know it wasn't just me being out of adventure-walk shape. Lots of people had that stunned/stewed rabbit look to them. Man it was GROSS today. But, I was good, I powered on through town, past the Art Gallery, the brand spankin' new State Library, and the even more spankin' new Gallery of Modern Art (where I was asked to check my bottle of water, hmm, so I left, not a huge fan of modern art anyways), and discovered the way west end of West End (the 'hood), covering a total of 8.32 kilometers (according to my little pedometer. I have no idea what that is in miles. Probably one.) And then, having decided I'd punished myself enough, I rode the ferry from one end to the other... which actually didn't really help the temperature factor, it was worse because I had to sit inside as I'd already given myself 2nd degree burns from walking. I'll just say, 30+ factor sunscreen does nothing in this country. I think they must use 80+ at least. I'll look in the drugstore next time. But, regardless, I love that ferry ride. So relaxing. And it's always neat to see what new, fancy-pants, high-tech condo complex or mansion has appeared right alongside the river. All that money just to have a house made of glass. Hmmm. I wouldn't throw the keys back if they gave them to me.

And that was that! Whew! And here I am, after having had a freezing cold shower and a root beer float, all is right in the world. The wind has picked up and the clouds have taken over in true monsoon fashion. Actually, in a weird kinda way, the clouds look like snow clouds. Hmmm. Maybe no storm, just cooler and still disgustingly humid. Ahhhhhhhhh, I wish I was the guy that invented air-conditioning.

So there you go. A very small, mini-adventure. Just like the old days! So I hope you're all well up there! Drop a line or a comment (about how yawn my little blog is) or, just to say hi!


BYE!
J!

P.S. Was just listening to the news' weather report, wish I hadn't heard that..... Turns out it was 38c - 100.5f degrees today with a minimum of 75% humidity. See? I knew it wasn't just me.

Lazy Romans

Hi!

Well. Weekends come and weekends go. Shame. Damn Romans. It's their fault weekends are only two days. They were good at lazing around, you'd've thought they'd come up with 3 or 4 days to the weekend. Ahhh well. But, this one was pretty nice. Weather was the same - hot, muggy, etc, but ahhhhhh, the reason why I pay so much rent is to not only live so close to town, but to have a pool. Ahhhhh. And, bonus, all the hoons were out of town this weekend! So I could actually get in there during normal daylight hours, spend some time and lay in the sun for a little bit - all undisturbed! No silly teenagers doing dive bombs! Excellent! I tell you, it's the little things that can make a weekend just that much nicer. That, and A&W. Mmmmmmmmm!


So the week went by. Busy. Learninglearninglearning all the time. Get this - I actually had to be a member on an interview panel (there were 3 of us). What a gig that is. What a switch from alllll those times sitting on the other side of the table. I wanted so badly to tell the gal to 'pleasepleaseplease don't be nervous, you have the job by a mile just by showing up, walking and talking!' And the fact she was the only one we interviewed! What a rotten thing they are - panel interviews. Horrible idea for a simple monkey job. A CEO in charge of billions of funds and thousands of people, ok, but a little office monkey? C'mon. What a waste of perfectly good nerves.

It was Pam's birthday Friday. Gal I work with. She's reallyreally cool. Helps me keep my sanity in one place at work. So I took her to the movies today over at Carindale mall, the one with the amazing wall-to-wall carpeting (again, no camera. How slack am I getting). Went and saw "Music and Lyrics". Yeah, I know. But it was her birthday and that's what she wanted to see. So, check your brain at the door and go on in. And you know, it was cute. I quite like Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant, well, he's just himself and can deliver a great line. It was ok. You could see it all coming a mile away, but it was still cute. Definitely a dvd rainy day kinda film.

And that was it! Did the usual, cleaned, shopped, read, swam, but, amazingly enough - no nap this weekend! Am not such a Grandma after all! Maybe it was those motorcycle gloves I bought that gave me energy, made me cooooool! I went into the Yamaha dealership Thursday to find out where the hell my $600 helmet is, as it hasn't come in yet. Apparently it's due to arrive (from where? the moon?!) in a few more weeks. But standing around with the sales guy, well, you just have to tell me one or two scooter near-death stories and that'll be me kitted up with leathers to go maybe 40 miles an hour, tops. So I thought little gloves were a good way to start my collection.

So there you are. Oh, just one little note, I've actually written a couple of nice, long informative emails and managed to hit the wrong button and seen them vanish. I hate Hotmail. Katie knows what I'm talking about. So yes, I am trying. Must use different email provider....... So just so you know, am trying to write. Am sorry for being such a neglectful friend. It doesn't mean I don't wonder how everyone is!!!! And again, that's one main reason for this little blog. Because I have 2 managers breathing down my neck, and one of those managers giving me all the work she can't be bothered to do, I have very little time to myself. 'Work shouldn't be like this' (she screams, shaking her fist at the sky)!!!!!! Either way, I hope you're all well up there! And yes, as of this month, I will be staying for a little while longer yet. Even though at Pam's birthday drinks on Friday I got to talking to 2 gals who'd just visited Mexico in November and all we talked about was the fooooood, I'll still stay here a wee while longer. So c'mon down! The weather's only going to get nicer! Hey, March 1st was the first day of Autumn!

BYE!
J!